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Dead Line cover art

Dead Line

By: Stella Rimington
Narrated by: Maggie Mash
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Summary

MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss, Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source.

The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake and the deadline for action is drawing ever closer....

©2008 Stella Rimmington (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd

What listeners say about Dead Line

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Almost flawless reading of an almost flawless book

Traditionally female narrators have been disliked by audio book fans. Maggie Mash should put an end to that. She is almost flawless. The one tiny niggle is that she reads a little slowly for my liking. Her cast of voices however is wide and consistent with every character firmly rooted in place and time. Men sound like men and women like women. Which is not true of all narrators.

Americans sound realistically American not just American-ish same for Israelis etc etc . Regional British accents are pulled off well as are Scottish accents. None of which fall in to parody. Although again some people might find it a little slow especially in the last act where things start warming up.

All this is important because the plot of Dead Line is complex and international. A bad reader could have spoiled what is an intricate and engaging book. I found the world of office politics and the blending of professional spy life and personal life very convincing. Although I would have been happy with an (even more) low key ending.
If you like Len Deightons Berlin game you will like this.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Not The Best Written Thriller

In 2004 Stella Rimington published her first novel, "At Risk". I vaguely remembered enjoying it and hadn't heard much from her until I saw "Dead Line" on Audible. Both books are part of the "Liz Caryle" series - the first and fourth respectively. Unfortunately "Dead Line" was sadly lacking the qualities of a classic thriller. The first part of the two part download kept my interest. However, with over 3 hours left of the second part I found myself getting a bit restless and just wanting things to speed up and end. By this stage the plot ceased to be gripping and any twists were simple and minor. I also sometimes have problems with thrillers written by women and this author falls into the trap of others by describing the emotions and love-life of the main (female character) in such a way that may appeal to some woman but not to some men such as myself. Overall an fairly enjoyable enough thriller that ultimately fails to deliver the punches that so many other authors can do. After "Dead Line" I'm reluctant to continue reading any more of the "Liz Caryle" series.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A bit naive

Disappointing. As Dame Stella Rimington was DG of MI6 I expected something better. This story is na?ve and cumbersome.

If you like thrillers don't bother, if you like Mills and Boon this might just do it for you.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awful voices!

This is the first book I have heard read by Maggie Mash. Her narration of the story is effective - but the voices are AWFUL! Every character sounds as though they have had a minor stroke and I found it very distracting, as it really disturbs the flow. And is also very weird.

This is a good book - Liz Carlyle is a believable character, and the scenarios are engaging.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Annoying narrator

In future I'll make sure I don't choose a book with this narrator, for me the 'voices' of the characters ruined the story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, awful narration

I’m not given to writing reviews normally, but the narration on this otherwise fairly enjoyable story by Stella Rimmington was to put it mildly appalling. The male voices without exception were ponderous, slow, tedious and frankly excruciating. I put up with the narration because I was otherwise enjoying the story, but I won’t be listening to any more, certainly not by this narrator. I’m really sorry Maggie Mash, but for my money you need to listen more to the way that men really speak and inject more reality into your interpretations.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

if the author of this was the head of Mi5!!!!!!

what a waste of time, writing, reading and listening to this inane juvenile nonsense. OMG

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Slow Start but worth it.

This was one of those books you struggle to settle with initially I think the reason for this could lie in the fact you are introduced to large number of characters very quickly and establishing who is the central one is frustrating.
I did listen to the first 30mins and gave up until much later, when i have to say it was well worth going back to. Its well written well narrated and reveals itself as a very high quality piece of work which you would expect from such a renowned author.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, spoiled by performance

The actual reading of the story was very good, but the male voices produced by the reader were awful. Most were spoken at an unreal, ridiculous, agonisingly slow tempo, and with over emphasised accents - more like caricatures than true spoken dialogue. Made listening a chore and not a pleasure.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mixed

Firstly, a good performance from Ms Mash.

History has not been kind to the plot but, as you would expect given the author's background, it felt plausible for its time. That said, it seemed to trail off a bit at the end and the peripheral sub-plot on the heroine's love-life (or lack thereof) was bigger than it should be.

I will give the next in the series a try.

My biggest complaint is that the chapters in the audio version are too long. I often listen in bed, sometimes falling asleep before the end of a chapter and having to re-listen the next day. If the original has long chapters, so be it. However, that's not the case here. The written version has 56 chapters, the audio only 10.

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